Apple Inc opposed a court ruling on Tuesday that ordered it to help the FBI break into an iPhone recovered from a San Bernardino shooter, heightening a dispute between tech companies and law enforcement over the limits of encryption.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Friday urged Britain to let him walk free from Ecuador's London embassy after a UN panel found that the anti-secrecy campaigner who faces a rape allegation in Sweden was "arbitrarily detained."

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's three-and-a-half-year stay in the Ecuadorian embassy in London amounts to 'unlawful detention', a United Nations panel examining his appeal will rule on Friday, the BBC reported.

German prosecutors on Monday announced a criminal investigation against Volkswagen's former chief executive as the government pressed the embattled auto giant to resolve a pollution cheating scandal that has rocked the auto sector.

Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn resigned Wednesday over a pollution cheating scandal that has sparked a US criminal investigation and worldwide legal action with unfathomable financial consequences for the auto giant.

German auto giant Volkswagen revealed on Tuesday that 11 million of its diesel cars worldwide are equipped with devices that can cheat pollution tests, a dramatic escalation of the scandal that has wiped over a third off the company's market value and now threatens to topple its chief executive.

Sweden and Ecuador have agreed to hold talks to break a deadlock over questioning Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, but investigations into three of four cases against him are likely to be dropped in the coming days due to statutes of limitation.